506 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



closely identified as to make the two lives almost one. She was 

 already 72 years of age when she returned to Hanover, as she 

 then believed soon to die. Her memoir is intensely individual. 

 During her twenty-six years of exile in Hanover {;8'22 to 1848) 

 from all those most loved in England, she maintained an active 

 correspondence with her nephew, Sir John F. W. Herschel and his 

 wife, and exchanged frequent letters with most of the eminent 

 astronomers of the time in Europe. These letters, as well as parts 

 of her diary and personal recollections, are excellent reading. We 

 find in them much to compensate us for the want of productiveness, 

 which Miss Herschel constantly laments as the great mistake of her 

 life in not continuing in England ; for if she had remained there 

 this correspondence, so full of vitality and varied interest, would 

 not have existed. While she was " minding the heavens" with 

 her beloved " Sweeper," as of old, she would have found no time 

 to record her recollections of her fifty years activity in her 

 brother's service, to honor whom she was so willing to obscure 

 her own real merits. But she will not be forgotten while scientific 

 literature endures. We are led to hope that from the materials 

 accumulated by her asaiduitv and other sources in the possession 

 of the family of Sir John Herschel, we may yet have a satisfactory 

 biography of Sir William Herschel— a work still wanting, b. s. 



5. The depth of the Pacific, and the nature of its bed.—SNe 

 take the following facts from a recent report by Prof. Wyville 

 Thomson. 



Between Hawaii and Tahiti, the depth, with one exception of 

 1,525 fathoms, ranged between 2,000 and 3,000 fathoms and has a 

 mean of 2,600 ; the bottom, except near the islands, mainly red 

 clay, with much oxide of manganese in small concretions, and many 

 foraminifers ; and over two patches, there were siliceous shells of 

 Kadolarians, making a "Radolarian ooze." The fauna of the 

 bottom was very meager. 



Between Tahiti and Valparaiso (reached on the 19th of October), 

 5,000 miles in distance, the course taken was southward to latitude 

 40° S., and then on that parallel to Valparaiso. The mean depth 

 was 2,139 fathoms; the bottom was of red clay with nodules of 

 manganese, with Globigerina ooze in the shallower parts. Life 

 was very sparse, except between Juan Vernandez and Valparaiso, 

 where, although the depth was 2,225 fathoms, it was abundant ; 

 the bottom was a bluish mud with very little manganese. 

 Notices of the following works are deferred to another number. 

 Reliquiae Aquitanicte, Part xvii, the closing part of the work. "Williams & 



(Geological Surrey of Pennsylvania. Historical sketch of Geological explora- 

 tions and other States, by J. P. Lesley, pp. 200 and xxvi, 8vo. 



Mines and Mineral Statistics of N. S. Wales, 1875. 246 pp. with maps and 



Revue de Geologic pour les Annees, 1873 at 1874, par M. Delesse et M. de 

 Lapparent. Paris, 1876. 



Geology for Students and General Readers. Part I, Physical Geography, by 

 A. a. Green, M.A., F.G.S. 552 pp. 8vo. London. (Daldy, Isbister & Co.) 



Second Annual Report of the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas, by 

 S. B. Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., State Geologist 96 pp. 8vo. Houston, Texas, 1876. 



